Monday, April 23, 2012

A new brood

the new babies

My household size has grown by three this week. I’ve added three new baby chickens to eventually replace my aging hens. These are Rhode Island Red chicks, and I’m scheduled to get three black sexlink chicks to add to this brood before too long.

So far the new babies are doing well. They were only a day or so old when I took this photo. They still aren’t a week old but I can already tell they’ve grown. Baby chicks are very fragile, so I’m not counting on all three surviving. I hope they will, of course, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to lose one at some point.

I’m down to four chickens from my original group of eight, who are now three years old. I lost one or so to sickness and two to predators. The rest are doing well and still laying pretty well, if not with the vigor they did two years ago. But the time has come to replenish my flock, and I hope these three will be the start of that.

When I got my first batch of chickens, I really knew nothing about raising chickens. I only knew I wanted fresh eggs. Since then I’ve had a lot of fresh eggs and learned a bit about raising chickens. Hand-raised chickens are sweet little souls, gentle and friendly. The eggs are so good I never want to go back to store-bought eggs.

For now the little babies are in my bedroom, warm under a brood lamp and learning how to be little chickens. They won’t be able to go outside and join the others until around mid-June. It will be August or September before they start to lay their first pullet eggs. It’s a long process from chick to fresh eggs, and getting the new babies is only the first step.

About Me

I live in a cabin in the forests of Pennsylvania. I write about what I see and do in the natural world around me. I've been a hawkwatcher for more than 20 years, a birder for longer than that, and a crayfish-catcher since I was a polywog.